NIGERIA TO STOP TERRORISM

The country Nigeria has witness countless number of attempts to make peace prevail among the polity. Rev. Ladi Thompson, the International Coordinator, Macedonian Initiative, comments in the following mood. One of the sorrowful details of the Jos crisis 2008 that will never be forgotten is the death of four youth corps members. The brutal murder of these young patriots was senseless waste of youthful energy in the service of our nation.

They entered of life not too many years ago, and were cast to act their roles on the Nigeria scene. On this mortal stage they played their part very well, obedient to parents, diligent in study and loyalty to country. The curtain of their performance fell in Katako Junction, City of Jos. They were hurried through the exit without a curtain call to seal the drama of their earthly life. They returned in a haste to eternity from which they came, like butterfly, whose beautiful wings were just unfolding, from the ugly confines of the pupa.

These youths, zealous, apolitical and un-offensive were the victims of the most vicious and tragic of crime perpetrated against humanity. Yet, their death does not have to be in vain, for they were martyred in our national quest for true freedom and dignity. Without a shred of doubt, the memories of their lives has poignant message for every one of us.
In death, they have something to say;

To every minister of the gospel that has remained silent behind the safe security of societal acceptance,
To every vitriolic cleric whose utterances continue to fuel monsters of hatred and strife,
To every politician who has traded his conscience for financial advantage,
To every so-called moderate who has traded courage for auction,
To every journalist whose pen has conceded defeat to cash,
To every civil servant whose vision is blinded by immortal dealings,
To every judge opinion extends the tenure of delay and denial,
To the masses of the nation,
To whose fixation on daily bread has blocked the route to loftier ideals,
To every civil society agitators whose campaign lack bite of conviction,
To every citizen who has stood by idly to watch values sink,
To a flaccid presidency that has yet to embrace the ideals to true democracy.

They say to every one of us that another opportunity has risen for us to stand up to be counted.
They say that we should not be concerned merely about finding the murderers that killed them, but the system, the way of life, the philosophy that produce them.

They say we should stop quibbling about the legitimacy of white papers, and the constitution of boards to admit that the global scourge of religious fundamentalist terror is now a Nigeria empowerment.

They say we should concentrate our national energies on blocking the gaps that enabled hatred to empower school children in Gombe State, until they murdered their teacher Christiana Oluwasein in cold blood, they say we should root out the terrorists moles in government, who worked behind the scene to cover up the murder of a Catholic Reverend Father Gajere in Maiduguri, sparked by the controversial Danish cartoons that were published in faraway Denmark.

Their voices say we should track the progress of the police bosess, who neutralized the force from protecting Benjamin Magaji who watched his father’s murder in Kaduna, and justice system that would not prosecute the assailants of Gideon Akaluka who was beheaded in Kano.

They say we should defrock the priest who colluded with the government to cover up the death of Sunday Nnachi, the architecture student that was abducted and murdered in the mosque of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University for sharing tracts on campus.

They say we should not ignore the sheer volume of the blood crying out from the streets of Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Zaria, Maiduguri and many other locations that my space will not permit.
They say we must factor the life of the almajiri as important as any other citizens, if goodness is to emerge from their tragedy, we must also watch the Boko-Haram and their nefarious activities in parts of the country.

As we listen to the cries that come from beyond their grave, we must not harbour bitterness, neither should we succumb to despair. We should not give room to revenge or the desire to retaliate with violence, instead, the Nigerians should stand up together to resist the excuses of the politician who believes that it is not politically expedient to unmask terrorism. The cowards who ask whether unmasking the perpetrators is a popular action and the laggards who want us to wait till it’s convenient.

Nigeria should unmask terrorism now, not because it is politic, expedient of popular, but because it is right path to lasting peace for all. From the pattern observed, the international community has made no secret of the fact that Nigeria has a terrorism problem, the link between Nigeria extremists and international terrorists is undeniable. The official report released by BBC that Islamic State (ISIS), has announced the new leader of Boko Haram.

We seem to be blindfolded by some inferiority complex that weights the life of a European as costlier than the Africans. All said and done, Nigeria is like a doctor that observes all the symptoms of a tropical fever, but refuses to announce the diagnosis of malaria.